A note on abelian subgroups of maximal order (Q2192701)

Summary: In this paper, we consider the influence that the maximal size \(m\) of an abelian subgroup of a group exerts on the size of the group. We will first prove that \(|G|\) divides \(g(m)\), the product of all prime powers at most \(m\). We then show that if a prime \(p > m/2\) divides \(|G|\) then either \(G\) is almost simple or of very restricted type and we determine the complete list of finite simple groups with exactly one such ``large'' prime divisor. We are then able to deduce that \(|G|=g(m)\) holds only when \(G\) is a small symmetric group and to derive an explicit upper bound for \(|G|\) as a function of \(m\). We conclude our paper by determining the order of magnitude of this upper bound.